Cuomo will promote passage of casino referendum

Posted
by Karen DeWitt on

Governor Cuomo says he plans to offer support to a November ballot referendum to allow new gambling casinos in New York.

Cuomo , who urged the legislature to approve a plan to build four gambling resorts upstate, and possibly more in New York City in a few years, says he will be promoting a yes vote on the referendum in the coming weeks.

“I support the referendum, I’ll be working to pass the referendum,” Cuomo said. “And then it’s going to be up to the voters.”

The actual wording of the referendum has been criticized as “spin” for saying that the new casinos would promote job growth , increase school aid, and possibly lower taxes. Cuomo says he hasn’t really “studied” the exact wording of the referendum, and doesn’t know who approved the phrasing. But he contends that if people know the “facts” about the gambling expansion, then the referendum will pass “overwhelmingly”.

The governor’s comments come as an anti gambling group released a study. The report by the Coalition Against Gambling in New York says that the costs of treating additional gambling addicts from the new gambling resorts would exceed any tax breaks that the casinos could generate.